On a moonless night as the wind howled,we climbed up the hill, overlooking the village. At the top as we began finalizing our plans for the assault, one of the men a new recruit by the name of Miguel Guajardo had started asking in a slurred drunken voice, “why are we here what are we fighting for”

“ I responded to him We are fighting because our president Porfirio Díaz has in more than twenty years of continuous power served only the rich and the powerful while us common folk have had our land taken from us, had our pay made so low we can hardly afford food, and worst of all in all that time we have had no say in our government. So that is why we fight for land reform, fair pay, and democracy. Now clear your head and prepare to fight”.
I then walked to very top of the hill and called all of the men to attention and in my most rallying voice said,”listen up men according to intel we are outnumbered 3 to 1 and we are fighting on their home territory with no canons and only one gatling gun, but despite that “Pancho” Villa has ordered that we take this village so take it we shall and when we do, first round is on me. Guajardo get on the gatling gun and give us covering fire, everyone else onwards for freedom, for Madero, for mexico”.

We charged down the hill toward the village. As the men and I approached the village we saw their sentries patrolling and they saw us. Realizing this I ordered the gatling gun to open fire. The gatling gun roared to life its noise drowning out the wind, its bullets cut down the sentries and gave the men and I time to take cover behind some buildings.

The sound of the gun and the cries of the sentries brought the rest of the garrison charging towards us and the fight began in earnest. The first few minutes of the battle where rough as loyalist troops almost overran our position driven back only by our gatling gun. As we drove them back deeper into the village things only got worse, a shot rang out from the window across the street and one of my men fell dead several more followed. “Take cover” I yelled, as we ran for cover I shot and killed one of the snipers.

While we were exchanging fire with the snipers dozens more enemies poured out of the surrounding buildings, these people were not soldiers such as the ones we had been previously fighting instead they where local people who were defending their homes from rebel scum who want to destroy mexico or whatever else the government is calling us now. After a few minutes of hard fighting they fell back to the plaza in the center of town. But even as they retreated I saw that I had less than half of my original hundred men.

We pushed forwards towards the plaza, but just before we reached it a door opened from one of the houses and a boy stepped out he was no older than thirteen and I shot him, I killed a boy hardly half my age who likely didn’t understand why we were fighting. I felt felt myself begin to break down over this monstrous act, tears stirred behind my eyes, as that happened I caught myself, no I thought I must stay calm and collected so moral doesn't break, I can deal with my own problems after the battle preferably with lots of liquor to help me forget.

I shook my head to clear it and charged into the plaza with my remaining men. The fighting in the plaza was harder than any had yet been for we were out in the open outnumbered and exhausted but after nearly ten minutes of shooting and getting shot at the remaining enemy forces surrendered and went in to the church to be with all of the civilians.

“Right then” I said “time to get an official surrender from the village leader.” I took two men Rodrigo and Rafael in to the town hall with me. As we walked up the stairs to the mayor's office two soldiers popped out of cover and killed Rodrigo and Rafael before they could even draw their guns. As my men died on the stairs I heard the sound of gunfire from the church and realised that their entire surrender had been a ruse. Realizing that that I had no hope of victory I dropped my gun and surrendered. The men grabbed me and dragged me into the mayor's office but the mayor was not there in his place sat lieutenant Martinez Porfirio Díaz’s personal monster and a tactical genius who was responsible for the death of several of my friends. He drew his pistol put it to my head and said “suffer now the fate of all traitors.” He pulled the trigger and then all faded to black.